The invention relates generally to circuit boards that are components of a device with a housing, the rear wall of which consists of plastic, and more particularly to such a circuit board that creates a connection that conducts electricity between at least two printed circuit boards.
Circuit boards of the aforementioned type are well-known in conjunction with devices that provide automation, such as, for example, Type S5-105 R, as depicted in the Siemens Catalogue SIMATIC S5, automation devices S5-101 R and S5-105 R, Catalogue ST 50 1984. The aforementioned automation device consists of a housing with a transverse bus circuit board arranged toward the rear that is made of plastic bearing strip conductors and it exhibits female multipoint connectors facing toward the inside. Components having circuit boards can be inserted into the device's housing from the front. An exchange of data and signals between various connected components can occur by way of contact blades arranged along the back of the circuit boards that may be inserted into the female multipoint connectors, and via the transverse bus circuit board. Furthermore, the publication of the German patent application DE-32 22 178-A1, which was laid open for public inspection, teaches of an electrically insulating supporting plate to which, by means of the hot-stamping process, metallic conductors are affixed. In this case, using the supporting plate component, which consists of thermoplastic material, structural element receivers and connector elements are produced simultaneously. An additional publication, the German patent application DE-37 32 249-A1, which was laid open for public inspection, refers to a process for the production of three-dimensional circuit boards. The process described in this case makes it possible to produce strip conductors in the third dimension as well.
Taking circuit boards of the aforementioned type as a point of present invention is directed to the problem of creating a one-piece circuit board as an integral component of the device's housing which not only creates the function of a connection that conducts electricity between the aforementioned circuit boards, but can also assume mechanical functions. An integral component of the solution to this problem is the coordination of circuit boards and the acceptance and distribution of forces. In addition, by virtue of the circuit board, it is possible to attach devices.